The International Criminal Court (ICC) has already issued arrest warrants for two of the highest-ranking members of the Taliban regime—Haibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani. They are on the docks for systematically committing a crime against humanity by persecuting Afghan women and girls. Since taking power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban have cracked down severely. These measures not only breach the rights and freedoms of women and girls, denying them their right to an education and to public expression.
Though Akhundzada is commonly thought of as the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haqqani is considered the group’s chief justice. The ICC’s chief prosecutor announced that both leaders are “criminally responsible” for gender-based persecution. He noted that the Taliban’s repressive and violent policies are flagrant breaches of international human rights norms. The harassment forces girls to drop out of school after sixth grade. Its effects go further than this; it supplants women’s voices from the public sphere, creating an environment of intimidation and subjugation.
The ICC recently reaffirmed the Taliban’s persecution on gender grounds that has continued since mid-August 2021. For Lisa Davis, the ICC’s Special Adviser on Gender and Other Discriminatory Crimes, this moment was especially significant. She called it “the first time in history” that an international tribunal has found LGBTQ individuals to be victims of crimes against humanity involving gender persecution.
“Specifically, the Taliban severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion,” a source stated. This quote highlights the extreme range of rights violations committed by the Taliban regime against women and girls.
Aside from preventing women from receiving an education, the Taliban’s extreme policies have successfully silenced women in public spaces. This repression aligns with their broader agenda to enforce strict interpretations of Islamic law, which many observers view as fundamentally inconsistent with internationally recognized human rights norms.
The ICC’s charges against Akhundzada and Haqqani signal an important moment of growing international resolve to tackle gender-based violence and discrimination. The recognition of LGBTQ individuals as victims further expands the scope of accountability for human rights abuses under the current Taliban regime.
